Language
English is the main language used in Australia. However there are aboriginal languages as well. Before the arrival of the Europeans, there were more than 250 languages spoken by Indigenous Australians. Most of these are now either extinct with only about fifteen languages still being spoken by all age group.
The Australian languages can be classified into two distinct groups: the Pama-Nyungan languages and the non-Pama-Nyungan. The Pama-Nyungan languages make up the majority, covering most of Australia, and are a family of related languages. In the north, stretching from the Western Kimberley to the Gulf of Carpentaria, their are a number of groups of languages which are not shown to be related to the Pama-Nyungan family or to each other, these are known as the non-Pama-Nyungan languages.
Education
Education in Australia is mainly the responsibility of the states and territories. Each state or territory government provides funding and controls the public and private schools within its governing area. Generally, education in Australia follows the three-tier model which consists of primary education (primary schools), followed by secondary education (secondary schools/high schools) and tertiary education (universities and/or TAFE Colleges). Education in Australia is compulsory between the ages of five and fifteen to seventeen, depending on the state or territory, and the date of birth.
The Program for International Student Assessment(PISA) 2006 evaluation ranked the Australian education system as 6th for Reading, 8th for Science and 13th for Mathematics, on a worldwide scale including 56 countries. The Education Index, published with the UN's Human Development Index in 2008, based on data from 2006, lists Australia as 0.993, amongst the highest in the world, tied for first with Denmark & Finland.
According to the Australia Bureau of Statistic 39% of indigenous students stayed on to year 12 at high school, compared with 75% for the Australian population as a whole.22% of indigenous adults had a vocational or higher education qualification, compared with 48% for the Australian population as a whole.4% of Indigenous Australians held a bachelor degree or higher, compared with 21% for the population as a whole. While this fraction is increasing, it is increasing at a slower rate than that for Australian population as a whole.
